Systems and methods for storing a media asset rescheduled for transmission from a different source

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for efficiently determining that a media asset scheduled to be stored from one content source has been rescheduled to another content source. For example, by examining the contents of data packets received with a media asset which identify the media asset currently being received (e.g., a field in an event information table), a media guidance application executed on a set-top box or other user equipment device may determine in real-time that the media asset scheduled to be stored is not currently being transmitted from the originally-scheduled content source. In response to determining the media asset is not available from the originally-scheduled content source, the media guidance application may search through packets received from other content sources to determine a content source the media asset has been rescheduled to and store the media asset from that content source.

BACKGROUND

Given the wide variety and number of content sources through which mediacan be delivered to consumers, content providers often move programmingto different content sources to optimize the number of viewers viewingtheir content. For example, a content provider may schedule one programon a specialty cable channel (e.g., NBCSN), but due to greater interestin the program than anticipated by the content provider (e.g., a largesocial media following), it may be transmitted nationally on a contentsource more viewers receive (e.g., on NBC) and/or at a different time.In this situation where the schedule change (e.g., the program has movedto a different channel and/or time) is determined well before theprogram is scheduled to begin, content providers may update a programlistings database which is then conferred to a set-top box or other userdevice (e.g., downloaded from the program listings database) to ensurethe user is informed of the correct content available. If a user hasscheduled the program to be stored, a set-top box with recordingcapabilities may automatically store the program from the correct sourcebased on the received schedule change information. However, a secondsituation exists where a particular program is rescheduled or “bumped”to a different channel in real-time, which is common in sporting eventsscheduled back-to-back.

In the situation where a given program is bumped to a different channelin real-time (as the program airs or is about to begin), the contentprovider may not have enough time to update a program listing databaseas described above. Particularly, conventional systems incur asubstantial lag time while the database is updated and the updates aredownloaded to the set-top box. This lag time results in a set-top boxfailing to store a segment, or perhaps the entirety, of the program. Inorder to alleviate the lag time, some systems use object and speechrecognition to determine that a schedule change for a program hasoccurred in real-time based on the content of the program (e.g., theannouncers saying that because a sporting event has run long, thebeginning of the next scheduled sporting event will be on a differentchannel). However, such systems are computationally intensive and evenwhen well-calibrated are not always accurate. Additionally, thesesystems are dependent on the information presented by the announcers/onthe screen; they may be unable to determine a schedule change if theannouncers fail to mention it.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, systems and methods are presented for determining that amedia asset scheduled to be stored from one content source has beenrescheduled to another content source. The systems and methods may beused to more efficiently determine that a media asset has beenrescheduled and the source the media asset has been rescheduled to. Forexample, by examining the contents of data packets received with a mediaasset which identify the media asset currently being received (e.g., afield in an event information table), a media guidance applicationexecuted on a set-top box or other user equipment device may determinein real-time that the media asset scheduled to be stored is notcurrently being transmitted from the originally-scheduled contentsource. In response to determining the media asset is not available fromthe originally-scheduled content source, the media guidance applicationmay search through packets received from other content sources todetermine a content source the media asset has been rescheduled to andstore the media asset from that content source. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application selectively chooses which content sources tosearch first based on their similarity to the originally-scheduledcontent source (e.g., if the program was originally-scheduled on ESPN,ESPN2 may be among the first searched content sources).

In some aspects, the media guidance application receives a user requestto store a first media asset from a first content source of a pluralityof content sources during a scheduled time interval. For example, themedia guidance application may receive a user selection of an option tostore a particular football game “Michigan v. USC” via a user inputinterface (e.g., a remote) from the channel “ESPN” from 4-6 pm. The usermay select the option to store the football game in a program listingscreen (e.g., in a grid guide), through a series recording option forall football games of a specific team, remotely from the set-top boxusing a mobile device, or any other method for selecting programs to bestored.

The media guidance application then stores the user request to store thefirst media asset from the first content source during the scheduledtime interval as an entry in a data structure, wherein the entryincludes a first field indicating a current content source. For example,the media guidance application may maintain a database of media assetsand scheduled intervals when the media assets are scheduled fortransmission that the user has requested to store, which may be locatedlocally in storage or remotely accessible via a communications network.As a specific example, the database may be arranged in a table whereeach row contains in separate cells (i.e., fields) an identifier of themedia asset scheduled for storage, a start time, an end time, and acontent source the media asset is available from (i.e., the currentcontent source). The media guidance application may read/write thisinformation by executing a database query language script, such as anSQL script. For example, the media guidance application may update thefield containing the current content source to be a different contentsource if the media guidance application determines the first mediaasset was rescheduled to the different content source, as describedfurther below.

The media guidance application then monitors, during the scheduled timeinterval, data packets received together with video from the firstcontent source. For example, upon determining that the scheduled timeinterval has begun for the media asset (e.g., it is 4 pm), the mediaguidance application may execute a program script to check data packetsreceived from the first content source (e.g., ESPN) to determine whetherthe football game is currently available from the first content source(e.g., the football game is airing on ESPN).

The media guidance application extracts a first media asset indicatorfrom the monitored data packets. For example, the media guidanceapplication may extract, by executing an SQL script utilizing thedeclarative “Select” command, the media asset indicator from a field ina table transmitted in a data packet with the audiovisual data for themedia asset. The identifier is unique to the first media asset allowingthe media guidance application to differentiate it from other mediaassets, and it may be a name of the media asset, or an automaticallyhashed integer based on the scheduled transmission time from the contentsource. In some embodiments, the media guidance application receives atable containing information related to the video from the first contentsource. For example, the table may be organized into rows containingmetadata relating to the program currently being received from a firstcontent source, such as an indicator of the program (e.g., a uniquealphanumeric code corresponding to the program) and a description of theprogram. The media guidance application then may retrieve a value from afield in the table corresponding to the first media asset indicator. Forexample, as described above, the media guidance application may retrievean indicator, such as “FTBL1485.”

The media guidance application compares the extracted first media assetindicator to an identifier of the first media asset. For example, themedia guidance application may access a database containing identifiersof media assets and determine (e.g., via character matching) whether themedia asset indicator extracted from the media asset stream matches anidentifier of the first media asset stored in the database. In someembodiments, the media guidance application stores, with the userrequest, the identifier of the first media asset. For example, when themedia guidance application receives a user selection to store thefootball game, the media guidance application stores an identifier ofthe football game which may be from the content source providing thefootball game. The media guidance application may compare the charactersof the identifier of the first media asset with the characters of theextracted first media asset indicator. For example, the media guidanceapplication may compare each character of the extracted indicator, suchas “FTBL1485,” with the stored identifier. The media guidanceapplication may determine that the extracted indicator matches thestored identifier if a threshold number or percentage of charactersmatch.

The media guidance application, in response to determining that theextracted media asset indicator does not correspond to the identifier ofthe first media asset, searches data packets received on the pluralityof content sources for a second data packet that includes a second mediaasset indicator that corresponds to the identifier of the first mediaasset. For example, the media guidance application may determine thatthe football game scheduled to air at 4 pm on ESPN is not currentlyairing based on the extracted indicator from the media asset currentlyreceived from ESPN not matching the identifier of the football game(e.g., based on comparison with the database as described above). Inresponse to this determination, the media guidance application may scanthrough other content sources to which the user subscribes in an attemptto find a content source where the media asset is available byextracting indicators from data packets and comparing the extractedindicators to the identifier of the media asset, as described above.

In some embodiments, when searching the data packets received on theplurality of content sources for the second data packet, the mediaguidance application accesses a database containing information for aplurality of content sources, wherein the information includesindications of subsets of the plurality of content sources that aresimilar to each content source of the plurality of content sources. Forexample, the media guidance application may access the database storedlocally in memory or remotely at a media guidance data source accessiblevia a communications network. The database may be designed in aself-referencing manner, where identifiers and information for eachcontent source may be contained non-contiguously in a single table andlinked via pointers to the appropriate fields corresponding to similarcontent sources in the table. The media guidance application thenretrieves an indication from a field in the database associated with thefirst content source that the second content source is similar to thefirst content source. For example, the media guidance application mayexecute a database query language script, such as an SQL script, whichretrieves, (e.g., via the declarative “Select” statement) an identifierof a second content source from a field associated with the firstcontent source. The media guidance application then searches datapackets from the second content source for the second media assetindicator that corresponds to the identifier of the first media asset.For example, as described above, the media guidance application extractsan indicator of the media asset currently being transmitted from thesecond content source and determines whether it matches the identifierof the first media asset.

The media guidance application, in response to determining that thesecond data packet received from a second content source of theplurality of content sources includes the second media asset indicatorthat corresponds to the identifier of the first media asset, updates thecurrent content source in the first field of the stored entry toindicate that the first media asset is being transmitted from the secondcontent source. For example, upon determining from the extracted datapackets from the content source “ESPN2” that the football game is airingon ESPN2 instead of ESPN, the media guidance application may update thefield corresponding to the current content source in the entry stored inthe data structure to reflect that the football game is airing from thedifferent content source, ESPN2. As a specific example, the mediaguidance application may execute a program script to update the valuestored in the first field associated with the stored entry for thefootball game.

The media guidance application stores the first media asset from thecurrent content source indicated in the first field of the stored entry.For example, the media guidance application may store the football gamefrom ESPN2 instead of ESPN based on the updated current content sourcevalue stored in the first field of the entry in the database. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may continue to monitor thedata packets of the media asset currently being received from the secondcontent source to determine whether the first media asset has beenscheduled back to the first content source, or another content source.For example, the reason the football game was rescheduled to ESPN2 maybe because a sporting event on ESPN scheduled to end at 4 pm ran long.In this situation, while storing from the second content source (e.g.,ESPN2) the media guidance application may continue to monitor whetherthe football game is still being received on ESPN2. After ten minutes,the game on ESPN may finish and the “Michigan v. USC” football game maybe scheduled back to ESPN from ESPN2. By continuing to monitor the mediaasset indicator received with the audiovisual data of the media assetduring the scheduled time interval, the media guidance application candetect a content source change at any time and find and store the mediaasset from the content source on which it is currently available.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application checks whether themedia asset scheduled to be stored has run longer than its scheduledtimeslot, and/or started before its scheduled timeslot. The mediaguidance application, during a first time interval outside of thescheduled time interval, monitors the data packets received togetherwith the video from the first content source. For example, the mediaguidance application may monitor the data packets received with thevideo from the first content source at a set time before the program isscheduled to begin, which may be user-customizable (e.g., 30 minutesbefore the media asset is scheduled to begin). As an illustrativeexample, the media guidance application may capture pre-game footage orinformation if a sporting event scheduled to end at 4 pm ends earlierthan expected. Alternatively or additionally, the media guidanceapplication monitors the data packets received with the video from thefirst content source after the scheduled end time of the media asset.For example, the first media asset scheduled to be stored may itself runpast the scheduled end time. In this situation, the media guidanceapplication may continue to monitor data packets received from the firstcontent source as described above and continue to store the media assetuntil the data packets received with the video from the first contentsource no longer match the identifier of the media asset (e.g.,indicating that the media asset has ended). Alternatively oradditionally, the media guidance application may determine that themedia asset has ended and not been rescheduled to another content sourceby searching the plurality of content sources as described above at theend or after the scheduled time interval.

In some embodiments, the media asset may be stored in multiple segmentsfrom different content sources. For example, a football game may beginon ESPN2, but be moved to ESPN after five minutes because the programthat ran long on ESPN is over. In such a situation, the media guidanceapplication stores a first segment of the media asset from the secondcontent source, as discussed above. For example, the media guidanceapplication may store the football game received from ESPN2 at the startof the game, instead of ESPN as originally-scheduled. The media guidanceapplication then stores a second segment of the first media assetreceived from the first content source. For example, the media guidanceapplication determines, using the methods discussed above, that thefootball game has been scheduled back to ESPN and stores a secondsegment of the football game received from ESPN. The media guidanceapplication then stitches, into a single stored file, the first segmentand the second segment. For example, the media guidance applicationcombines the two stored segments of the football game such that a singlestored file for the entire game can be accessed by the user. The mediaguidance application additionally stores, in the single stored file, anindication that the single stored file was created from the firstcontent source and the second content source. For example, the mediaguidance application may store the indication that the stored file wasmade from multiple content sources so that the user is alerted to thatfact.

In some embodiments, when stitching together two stored segments, themedia guidance application extracts a first time stamp for the firstsegment from metadata stored with the first segment. For example, themedia guidance application may extract that the first segment was storedstarting at “19:00:00” (HH:MM:SS). The media guidance applicationextracts a second time stamp for the second segment from metadata storedwith the second segment. For example, the media guidance application mayextract that the second segment was stored starting at “19:05:00”(HH:MM:SS). The media guidance application then compares the first timestamp and the second time stamp to determine which is earlier. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine based onsubtracting the two extracted time stamps which is earlier based onwhether the result obtained from the subtraction is positive ornegative. The media guidance application, in response to determining thefirst time stamp is earlier, adds the second segment to the end of thefirst segment. For example, the media guidance application stitches thebeginning of the second segment stored from ESPN to the end of the firstsegment stored from ESPN2 of the football game.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application compares a durationof the stored first media asset to the scheduled time interval. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine that the storedfootball game has a duration of one hour and compare this to thescheduled time interval for the football game, which may be two hours.The media guidance application, in response to determining the durationof the stored media asset is shorter than the scheduled time interval,compares the difference between the duration of the stored media assetand the scheduled time interval to a threshold difference. For example,the media guidance application may determine that the stored footballgame is shorter than the scheduled interval for the football game andthat the difference (e.g., an hour) is greater than a thresholddifference (e.g., 5 minutes). The media guidance application, inresponse to determining the difference between the duration of thestored media asset and the scheduled time interval meets the thresholddifference, determines that the stored first media asset is notcomplete. For example, the media guidance application determines thatsince there is a one hour difference between the scheduled interval andwhat was actually stored, which is greater than the thresholddifference, that the stored football game is not complete.

In some embodiments, in response to determining the difference betweenthe duration of the stored media asset and the scheduled time intervalmeets the threshold difference, the media guidance applicationadditionally determines, from media asset listings retrieved from amedia guidance database, whether the first media asset is available at afuture time. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat a portion of the football game (e.g., one hour) may not have beenstored which exceeds the threshold (e.g., five minutes), and thenretrieve listings from a media guidance data source to determine whethera media asset is available at a future time (e.g., a re-run). The mediaguidance application may compare the characters of the identifier of themedia asset with individual listings to make the determination that themedia asset is available at a future time. The media guidanceapplication, in response to determining the first media asset isavailable at a future time from a third content source, stores a secondrequest to store the first media asset from the third content source(e.g., in a data structure such as a table, as discussed above). Forexample, the media guidance application may determine that the mediaasset is available from a third content source, which may be the first,second, or a different content source, and schedule a request to storethe media asset from the third content source (e.g., ABC). By schedulingthe re-run of the media asset, the media guidance application may beable to determine whether the original stored media asset was complete(e.g., it ended earlier than its scheduled interval) or whether it wasmissing a portion of the media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application stores only aportion of the media asset scheduled at a future time. The mediaguidance application retrieves, from metadata stored for each frame of aplurality of frames of the stored media asset, times associated witheach frame of the plurality of frames. For example, each frame receivedand stored by the media guidance application may have associatedmetadata with a time the frame was transmitted from the content source(e.g., in the format HH:MM:SS:FF, where FF is the frame number). Themedia guidance application may determine that a portion of the firstmedia asset is missing between a first frame and a second frame. Forexample, the media guidance application may detect that after a framewith an associated time 19:05:00:01, the next frame has an associatedtime 19:10:00:01, and the media guidance application may determine thata portion (e.g., five minutes of the media asset) is missing from thestored media asset. The media guidance application may then store, withthe second request, an instruction to only store the first portion ofthe first media asset. For example, in order to create a completeversion of the media asset without storing the whole media asset overagain, which may be storage intensive, the media guidance applicationstores an instruction to only store the frames of the media asset thatare missing from the stored first media asset (e.g., the first portion).

It should be noted the systems and/or methods described above may beapplied to, or used in accordance with, other systems, methods and/orapparatuses.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for determining that a mediaasset scheduled to be stored from one content source has beenrescheduled for transmission from another content source, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative example of data packets received from acontent source containing media asset information and audiovisual data,in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 shows an illustrative example of a display screen for use inaccessing media content in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 4 shows another illustrative example of a display screen usedaccess media content in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 is another flowchart of illustrative steps for determining that amedia asset scheduled to be stored from one content source has beenrescheduled for transmission from another content source, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for searching data packetsreceived from a plurality of content sources, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure; and

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for determining whether astored media asset is a complete version of the media asset, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods are presented for determining that a media assetscheduled to be stored from one content source has been rescheduled fortransmission from another content source. The systems and methods may beused to more efficiently determine that a media asset has beenrescheduled and the source from which the media asset has beenrescheduled to be transmitted. For example, by examining the contents ofdata packets received with a media asset which identify the media assetcurrently being received (e.g., a field in an event information table),a media guidance application executed on a set-top box or other userequipment device may determine in real-time that the media assetscheduled to be stored is not currently being transmitted from theoriginally-scheduled content source. In response to determining themedia asset is not available from the originally-scheduled contentsource, the media guidance application may search through packetsreceived from other content sources to determine a content source themedia asset has been rescheduled to and store the media asset from thatcontent source. In some embodiments, the media guidance applicationselectively chooses which content sources to search first based on theirsimilarity to the originally-scheduled content source (e.g., if theprogram was originally scheduled on ESPN, ESPN2 may be among the firstsearched content sources that is searched).

As referred to herein, a “media guidance application,” or an“interactive media guidance application” or, sometimes, a “mediaguidance application” or a “guidance application” is an application thatallows a user to consume, and/or navigate to, media assets. In someembodiments, the media guidance application may be provided as an onlineapplication (i.e., provided on a website), or as a stand-aloneapplication on a server, user device, etc. In some embodiments, themedia guidance application may be executed on the first device and asecond device simultaneously, or at a location remote from either device(e.g., a remote server), or any suitable combination. In someembodiments, control circuitry installed on various devices andplatforms may execute the media guidance application, as described inmore detail below. In some embodiments, the media guidance applicationand/or any instructions for performing any of the embodiments discussedherein may be encoded on computer readable media. Computer readablemedia includes any media capable of storing data. The computer readablemedia may be transitory, including, but not limited to, propagatingelectrical or electromagnetic signals, or may be non-transitoryincluding, but not limited to, volatile and nonvolatile computer memoryor storage devices such as a hard disk, floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD,media card, register memory, processor caches, Random Access Memory(“RAM”), etc.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for adjusting output ofmedia assets based on user preferences, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. For example, a media guidance applicationimplementing process 100 may be executed by control circuitry 504 (FIG.5). It should be noted that process 100 or any step thereof could beperformed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 5-6.

Process 100 begins at 102, where the media guidance application receives(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a user request to store afirst media asset from a first content source of a plurality of contentsources during a scheduled time interval. For example, the mediaguidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) mayreceive a user selection of an option to store a particular footballgame “Michigan v. USC” via a user input interface (e.g., via user inputinterface 510 (FIG. 5)) from the channel “ESPN” from 4-6 pm. The usermay select the option to store the football game in a program listingscreen (e.g., in a grid guide (FIGS. 3-4)), through a series recordingoption for all football games of a specific team, remotely from theset-top box using a mobile device, or any other method for selectingprograms to be stored. As referred to herein, “store” should beunderstood to mean any methods or systems for preserving a media assetpersistently, such that a user can access the media asset after itsoriginal transmission. In some embodiments, storing a media asset may beperformed by a set-top box or other user equipment recording the mediaasset from the content source transmitting the media asset. In otherembodiments, storing a media asset may be performed by downloading acopy of the media asset from a remote server via a communicationsnetwork.

Process 100 continues to 104, where the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the scheduled timeinterval has begun. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) from an internalclock (e.g., in a user equipment device as described in FIGS. 5-6) thecurrent time. The media guidance application (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) may then compare the current time to a starttime of the scheduled time interval stored in a data structure for thefirst media asset to determine whether the current time matches thestart time.

Process 100 continues to 106, where the media guidance applicationmonitors (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) data packetsreceived together with video from the first content source, which isdescribed in detail in FIG. 7 below. For example, the media guidanceapplication (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) may execute aprogram script to check data packets received from the first contentsource (e.g., ESPN) to determine whether the football game is currentlyavailable from the first content source (e.g., the football game isairing on ESPN). The media guidance application (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) may monitor the data packets continuously, orduring predetermined intervals to reduce computational cost.

Process 100 continues to 108, where the media guidance applicationextracts (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a first media assetindicator from the monitored data packets. For example, the mediaguidance application may extract (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.5)), by executing an SQL script utilizing the declarative “Select”command, the media asset indicator from a field in a table transmittedin a data packet with the audiovisual data for the media asset. Asreferred to herein, a “media asset indicator” should be understood tomean any identifier that is unique to the first media asset allowing themedia guidance application to differentiate it from other media assets.In some embodiments, the media asset indicator may be a name or title ofthe media asset in alphanumeric characters. In other embodiments, themedia asset indicator may be an automatically-hashed integer based onthe scheduled transmission time from the content source. In still otherembodiments, the “media asset indicator” may be split include multiplecomponents used by the media guidance application to determine whatmedia asset is currently being transmitted. For example, the mediaguidance application may receive multiple fields of information (e.g.,as in FIG. 2 below) and use more than just one field to determine whatmedia asset is currently being transmitted.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) receives a table containing information relatedto the video from the first content source. For example, the table maybe organized into rows containing metadata relating to the programcurrently being received from a first content source, such as anindicator of the program (e.g., a unique alphanumeric code correspondingto the program) and a description of the program, as described furtherbelow in FIG. 2. The media guidance application then may retrieve avalue from a field in the table corresponding to the first media assetindicator. For example, as described above, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve an indicator, such as “FTBL1485.”

Process 100 continues to 110, where the media guidance applicationcompares (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the extracted firstmedia asset indicator to an identifier of the first media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may access (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a database containing identifiers of mediaassets, (e.g., stored locally in memory (e.g., storage 508), or remotelyat a media guidance data source (e.g., media guidance data source 618)accessible via a communications network (e.g., communications network614)) and determine (e.g., via character matching) whether the mediaasset indicator extracted from the media asset stream matches anidentifier of the first media asset stored in the database.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application stores (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)), with the user request, the identifierof the first media asset. For example, when the media guidanceapplication receives (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a userselection (e.g., from user input interface 510 (FIG. 5)) to store thefootball game, the media guidance application stores an identifier ofthe football game which may be from the content source providing thefootball game. The media guidance application may compare (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the characters of the identifier of thefirst media asset with the characters of the extracted first media assetindicator. For example, the media guidance application may compare(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) each character of theextracted indicator, such as “FTBL1485,” with the stored identifier. Themedia guidance application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry504 (FIG. 5)) that the extracted indicator matches the stored identifierif a threshold number or percentage of characters match.

Process 100 continues to 112, where the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) whether theextracted media asset indicator corresponds to the identifier of thefirst media asset. For example, the media guidance application mayexecute (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a program scriptwhich outputs whether the extracted indicator matches the storedidentifier of the first media asset (e.g., “FTBL1485” is both theextracted indicator and the stored identifier). The media guidanceapplication may receive (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) as anoutput of the executed program script a Boolean result based on whetherthe extracted indicator matches the stored identifier.

If the media guidance application determines the extracted media assetindicator corresponds to the identifier of the first media asset,process 100 continues to 114, where the media guidance applicationstores (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the first media assetreceived from the first content source. For example, upon determiningthat the extracted identifier matches the stored identifiercorresponding to the first media asset, the media guidance applicationmay store (e.g., in storage 508 (FIG. 5)) the football game receivedfrom the originally-scheduled content source (e.g., ESPN). The mediaguidance application may continue to monitor (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) data packets received from the first contentsource throughout the scheduled time interval to determine whether thefirst media asset is no longer being transmitted from the first contentsource and is being transmitted from a different content source (e.g.,process 100 may return to step 106).

If the media guidance application determines the extracted media assetindicator does not correspond to the identifier of the first mediaasset, process 100 continues to 116, where the media guidanceapplication searches (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) datapackets received on the plurality of content sources for a second datapacket that includes a second media asset indicator that corresponds tothe identifier of the first media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))that the football game scheduled to air at 4 pm on ESPN is not currentlyairing based on the extracted indicator from the media asset currentlyreceived from ESPN not matching the identifier of the football game(e.g., based on comparison with the database as described above). Inresponse to this determination, the media guidance application may scanthrough other content sources (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))to which the user subscribes in an attempt to find a content sourcewhere the media asset is available by extracting indicators from datapackets and comparing the extracted indicators to the identifier of themedia asset, as described above.

Process 100 continues to 118, where the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) whether the seconddata packet received from a second content source of the plurality ofcontent sources includes the second media asset indicator thatcorresponds to the identifier of the first media asset. For example, themedia guidance application may extract (e.g., via control circuitry 504(FIG. 5)) a media asset indicator (e.g., “FTBL1485”) from a data packetreceived from the second content source and determine whether it matches(e.g., via character matching) the identifier of the first media assetstored in a data structure, as described above.

If the media guidance application determines the second data packetreceived from a second content source of the plurality of contentsources includes the second media asset indicator that corresponds tothe identifier of the first media asset, process 100 continues to 124,where the media guidance application stores (e.g., via control circuitry504 (FIG. 5)) the first media asset received from the second contentsource. For example, the media guidance application may store (e.g., instorage 508 (FIG. 5)) the football game received from ESPN2 instead ofESPN based on determining from the data packet received from ESPN2 thatthe football game is being transmitted from that station.

If the media guidance application determines the second data packetreceived from a second content source of the plurality of contentsources does not include the second media asset indicator thatcorresponds to the identifier of the first media asset, process 100continues to 120, where the media guidance application determines (e.g.,via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) whether there are any additionalcontent sources that have not been searched. For example, the mediaguidance application may execute (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.5)) a program script containing a “for” loop that iteratively receivesdata packets containing media asset indicators from content sources thatthe user subscribes to and terminates when data packets containing mediaasset indicators from all the content sources have been checked.Alternatively or additionally, the media guidance application maymaintain a list of content sources (e.g., in storage 508 (FIG. 5)) thatdata packets have been extracted from and determine whether any contentsources subscribed to by the user have not yet been checked.

If the media guidance application determines there are not anyadditional content sources that have not been searched, process 100continues to 122, where the media guidance application returns (e.g.,via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the first media asset is notavailable for storage. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the footballgame is not being transmitted from any content source available to theuser. Alternatively or additionally, upon making the determination thatthe football game is not being transmitted from any content sourceavailable to the user, the media guidance application may transmit(e.g., via communications network 614 (FIG. 6)) a notification to theuser that the football game cannot be stored due to a schedule change.

If the media guidance application determines there are additionalcontent sources that have not been searched, process 100 returns to 116,where the media guidance application searches (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) data packets received on the plurality ofcontent sources that have not been searched for a second data packetthat includes a second media asset indicator that corresponds to theidentifier of the first media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may continue to search (e.g., via control circuitry 504(FIG. 5)) data packets received from different content sources for amedia asset indicator that corresponds to the stored identifier of thefootball game, as described above.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 1 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 1 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. For example, multiple instances ofprocess 100 may be executed for multiple tuners in a set-top box whichare each scheduled to receive different media assets for storage.Furthermore, it should be noted that any of the devices or equipmentdiscussed in relation to FIGS. 5-6 could be used to perform one or moreof the steps in FIG. 1.

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative example of data packets received from acontent source containing media asset information and audiovisual data,in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. For example, FIG.2 shows data packets 200 received by the media guidance application froma content source (e.g., media content source 616 (FIG. 6)) containingvarious information relating to presentation of the program (e.g., mediaasset information data packets 202 and audiovisual data packets 204).For example, media asset information data packets 202 may containtextual information describing a media asset, its source, duration, etc.as described further below. Audiovisual data packets 204 may containinformation that the media guidance application uses to output theprogram on a display screen (e.g., pixel color/brightness information,audio frequency and amplitude etc.).

Media asset information data packets may contain information on a mediaasset conforming to the Advanced Television Systems Committee, Inc.'s,“ATSC Recommended Practice: Program and System Information ProtocolImplementation Guidelines for Broadcasters,” which describes aconsistent structural arrangement and format for data tables containingsupplemental information to the audiovisual information of a mediaasset. As a general discussion, a particular packet of media assetinformation data packets 202 may contain packet ID 206. For example,packet ID 206 may be generated by hashing (e.g., a function that assignsan index value, such as an integer, to each packet) and may be aninteger or string of characters that allows the media guidanceapplication to reference the particular packet and map it to audiovisualdata packets. This may allow the media guidance application to determinethat a particular audiovisual data packet or set of data packetscorresponds to particular media asset information (e.g., it allows themedia guidance application to determine the media asset currently beingtransmitted). The particular packet of media asset information datapackets 202 additionally contains event information 208 and ratingsinformation 210. Additional information 212 relating to extendeddescriptions of programs, channels lists, or any other relevantinformation may also be contained in media asset information datapackets 202.

Ratings information 210 may be arranged as a table where differentratings are matched with different populations that may be receiving theprogram. For example, a media guidance application may receive a programin Texas where the media asset is rated TV-14, as defined in the tablefor ratings information 210. The media guidance application may use thisinformation for implementing parental control settings, i.e., lockingprograms for viewing by a user above a certain content rating unlessthey have a code or personal identification number to unlock theprogram.

Event information 208 contained in a media asset information data packetmay be arranged in a table, as shown in FIG. 2. The content source 214of the audiovisual data transmitted concurrently with the media assetinformation may be identified by a channel number, frequency, or otheridentifier (e.g., the name of the station such as “ESPN”). The table maybe arranged based on event IDs, such as event ID 216, which indexes theinformation in the table based on its airtime and content. For example,event ID 216, with index “1” may refer to the currently airing programfrom content source 214, while an event ID with a greater index mayrefer to future scheduled programming. For each event ID, the tablecontains information on the local start time 218, such as “12:30.” Thetime may be arranged in 12 hour format with an additional bit designatedto distinguish AM from PM, or in 24 hour format. Each event ID alsocontains a length 220 of the media asset described by the particularevent ID. The length may be relative to any length of time, although forease a rounded integer value of seconds may be preferable to hours ordays, which may require decimals.

Each event ID additionally contains a title, such as title 222,“Football.” The title may be any combination of alphanumeric characterswhich identifies the media asset, although it may be limited to acertain number of bytes in the data packet for efficiency oftransmission. Additional longer descriptions of the media asset (e.g.,description of program 228) may in some cases be found for each event ID(e.g., a synopsis summarizing the content in a short paragraph).However, in some cases the field for description of program 228 maycontain a pointer to another table containing the description, which maybe in a separate data packet. Each event ID contains a descriptorinforming the media guidance application what the particular event IDrefers to. For example, event ID 216 may be describing descriptor 224,“content,” since it contains information about the media asset itself.As another example, a different event ID may be describing data receivedout-of-band or non-audiovisual data from content source 214, such asdescriptor 226, “closed caption.”

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive a tablecontaining information related to the video from the first contentsource. For example, the media guidance application may receive eventinformation 208 arranged in a table as shown in FIG. 2. The mediaguidance application may then retrieve a value from a field in the tablecorresponding to the first media asset indicator. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve title 222 “Football” of event ID 216,which has an index of “1,” since that represents the media assetcurrently being transmitted from content source 214. Alternatively oradditionally, the media guidance application may retrieve data from thefield corresponding to description of program 228 and use this data inconjunction with retrieved title 222 to ensure a more accuratedetermination of the media asset currently being transmitted fromcontent source 214. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine that “Football—Michigan v. USC” is currently being transmittedfrom content source 214 based on retrieving title 222 “Football” anddescription of program 228, “Michigan v. USC.” In this way, the mediaguidance application may extract additional information from the datapacket for a more accurate determination of whether the first mediaasset indicator matches the identifier of the media asset.

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, chat sessions, social media,applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 3-4 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 3-4 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 3-4 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 3 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 300arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 300 may include grid 302 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 304, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 306, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 302 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 308, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 310. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 310 may be provided inprogram information region 312. Region 312 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 302 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 314, recorded content listing 316, andInternet content listing 318. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 300 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings314, 316, and 318 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 302 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 302. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 320. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 320.)

Display 300 may also include video region 322, and options region 326.Video region 322 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs thatare currently available, will be available, or were available to theuser. The content of video region 322 may correspond to, or beindependent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 302. Griddisplays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalitiesare described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No.6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794,issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other mediaguidance application display screens of the embodiments describedherein.

Options region 326 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 326 may be part of display 300 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 326 may concern features related to program listings in grid 302or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 6. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 4. Video mosaic display 400 includes selectable options 402 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 400, television listings option 404 isselected, thus providing listings 406, 408, 410, and 412 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 400 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 408 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 414 and text portion 416.Media portion 414 and/or text portion 416 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 414 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 400 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 406 islarger than listings 408, 410, and 412), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 5 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 500. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 6.User equipment device 500 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 502. I/O path 502 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 504, which includesprocessing circuitry 506 and storage 508. Control circuitry 504 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 502. I/O path 502 may connect control circuitry 504 (andspecifically processing circuitry 506) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 5 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 504 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 506. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 504 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 508). Specifically, control circuitry 504 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 504 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 504 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 504 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 6). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 508 thatis part of control circuitry 504. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 508 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 6, may be used to supplementstorage 508 or instead of storage 508.

Control circuitry 504 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 504 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 500. Circuitry 504 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 508 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 500, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 508.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 504 using user inputinterface 510. User input interface 510 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 512 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 500. For example, display 512 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 510may be integrated with or combined with display 512. Display 512 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 512 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 512 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 512.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry504. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 504.Speakers 514 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 500 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 512 may be played throughspeakers 514. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers514.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 500. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage508), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 504 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 508 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 504 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from user input interface 510.For example, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicatedby the processed instructions when user input interface 510 indicatesthat an up/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 500 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 500. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 504 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 504) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 500. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 500.Equipment device 500 may receive inputs from the user via user inputinterface 510 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 500 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via user input interface510. The remote server may process instructions in accordance with thatinput and generate a display of the application corresponding to theinput (e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generateddisplay is then transmitted to equipment device 500 for presentation tothe user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 504). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 504 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 504. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 504. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 500 of FIG. 5 can be implemented in system 600 ofFIG. 6 as user television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604,wireless user communications device 606, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 5 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604, or awireless user communications device 606. For example, user televisionequipment 602 may, like some user computer equipment 604, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 604 may, like some television equipment 602, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 604, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 606.

In system 600, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 6 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 602, user computer equipment 604, wireless user communicationsdevice 606) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 614.Namely, user television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604, andwireless user communications device 606 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 614 via communications paths 608, 610, and 612, respectively.Communications network 614 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 608, 610, and 612 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 612 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 6 it is awireless path and paths 608 and 610 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 6 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 608, 610, and 612, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 614.

System 600 includes content source 616 and media guidance data source618 coupled to communications network 614 via communication paths 620and 622, respectively. Paths 620 and 622 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 608, 610,and 612. Communications with the content source 616 and media guidancedata source 618 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 6 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 616 and media guidance data source 618, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 6 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 616 and media guidance data source 618 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 616 and 618 withuser equipment devices 602, 604, and 606 are shown as throughcommunications network 614, in some embodiments, sources 616 and 618 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 602, 604, and 606 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 608, 610, and 612.

Content source 616 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 616 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 616 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content.

Content source 616 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 618 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 618may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 618 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 618 mayprovide user equipment devices 602, 604, and 606 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions that entice the user tokeep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one towhich the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 508, and executedby control circuitry 504 of a user equipment device 500. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 504 of user equipment device 500and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 618) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 618), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 618 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices602, 604, and 606 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 600 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 6.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 614.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 616 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 602 and user computer equipment 604may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 606 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 614. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 616 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 618. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 602, user computer equipment 604, and wirelessuser communications device 606. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 604 or wireless usercommunications device 606 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 604. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 614. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 5.

As referred herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated as aresult of. For example, a first action being performed in response to asecond action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

FIG. 7 is another flowchart of illustrative steps for adjusting outputof media assets based on user preferences, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. For example, a media guidance applicationimplementing process 700 may be executed by control circuitry 504 (FIG.5). It should be noted that process 700 or any step thereof could beperformed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 5-6.

Process 700 begins at 702, where the media guidance application receives(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a user request to store afirst media asset from a first content source of a plurality of contentsources during a scheduled time interval. For example, the mediaguidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) mayreceive a user selection of an option to store a particular footballgame “Michigan v. USC” via a user input interface (e.g., via user inputinterface 510 (FIG. 5)) from the channel “ESPN” from 4-6 pm. The usermay select the option to store the football game in a program listingscreen (e.g., in a grid guide (FIGS. 3-4)), through a series recordingoption for all football games of a specific team, remotely from theset-top box using a mobile device, or any other method for selectingprograms to be stored.

Process 700 continues to 704, where the media guidance applicationstores (e.g., in storage 508 (FIG. 5)) the user request to store thefirst media asset from the first content source during the scheduledtime interval as an entry in a data structure, wherein the entryincludes a first field indicating a current content source. For example,the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.5)) may maintain a database of media assets and scheduled intervals whenthe media assets are scheduled for transmission that the user hasrequested to store, which may be located locally in storage (e.g., instorage 508 (FIG. 5)) or remotely (e.g., in media guidance data source618 (FIG. 6)) accessible via a communications network (e.g., viacommunications network 614 (FIG. 6)). As a specific example, thedatabase may be arranged as a table where each row contains in separatecells (i.e., fields) an identifier of the media asset scheduled forstorage, a start time, an end time, and a content source the media assetis available from (i.e., the current content source). The media guidanceapplication may read/write this information by executing (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a database query language script, suchas an SQL script. For example, the media guidance application may update(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the field containing thecurrent content source to be a different content source if the mediaguidance application determines the first media asset was rescheduled tothe different content source, as described further below.

Process 700 continues to 706, where the media guidance applicationmonitors (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) data packetsreceived together with video from the first content source. For example,the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.5)) may execute a program script to check data packets received from thefirst content source (e.g., ESPN) to determine whether the football gameis currently available from the first content source (e.g., the footballgame is airing on ESPN). The media guidance application (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) may monitor the data packetscontinuously, or during predetermined intervals to reduce computationalcost.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application monitors (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) data packets received from the firstcontent source outside of the scheduled time interval as described inFIG. 1. The media guidance application may then determine (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) whether the media asset scheduled to bestored has run longer than its scheduled timeslot, and/or started beforeits scheduled timeslot. The media guidance application, during a firsttime interval outside of the scheduled time interval, monitors (e.g.,via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the data packets received togetherwith the video from the first content source. For example, the mediaguidance application may monitor (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.5)) the data packets received with the video from the first contentsource at a set time before the program is scheduled to begin, which maybe user-customizable (e.g., 30 minutes before the media asset isscheduled to begin). As an illustrative example, the media guidanceapplication may store (e.g., in storage 508 (FIG. 5)) pre-game footageor information if a sporting event scheduled to end before the scheduledfirst media asset ends earlier than expected.

Alternatively or additionally, the media guidance application monitors(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the data packets receivedwith the video from the first content source after the scheduled endtime of the media asset. For example, the first media asset scheduled tobe stored may itself run past the scheduled end time. In this situation,the media guidance application may continue to monitor (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) data packets received from the firstcontent source as described above and continue to store the media assetuntil the data packets received with the video from the first contentsource no longer match the identifier of the media asset (e.g.,indicating that the media asset has ended). Alternatively oradditionally, the media guidance application may determine (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the media asset has ended and notbeen rescheduled to another content source by searching the plurality ofcontent sources as described above at the end or after the scheduledtime interval.

Process 700 continues to 708, where the media guidance applicationextracts (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a first media assetindicator from the monitored data packets. For example, the mediaguidance application may extract (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.5)), by executing an SQL script utilizing the declarative “Select”command, the media asset indicator from a field in a table transmittedin a data packet with the audiovisual data for the media asset. Theidentifier is unique to the first media asset allowing the mediaguidance application to differentiate it from other media assets, and itmay be a name of the media asset, or an automatically hashed integerbased on the scheduled transmission time from the content source. Insome embodiments, the media guidance application (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) receives a table containing information relatedto the video from the first content source. For example, the table maybe organized into rows containing metadata relating to the programcurrently being received from a first content source, such as anindicator of the program (e.g., a unique alphanumeric code correspondingto the program) and a description of the program, as described furtherbelow in FIG. 2. The media guidance application then may retrieve avalue from a field in the table corresponding to the first media assetindicator. For example, as described above, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve an indicator, such as “FTBL1485.”

Process 700 continues to 710, where the media guidance applicationcompares (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the extracted firstmedia asset indicator to an identifier of the first media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may access (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a database containing identifiers of mediaassets, (e.g., stored locally in memory (e.g., storage 508), or remotelyat a media guidance data source (e.g., media guidance data source 618)accessible via a communications network (e.g., communications network614)) and determine (e.g., via character matching) whether the mediaasset indicator extracted from the media asset stream matches anidentifier of the first media asset stored in the database.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application stores (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)), with the user request, the identifierof the first media asset. For example, when the media guidanceapplication receives (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a userselection (e.g., from user input interface 510 (FIG. 5)) to store thefootball game, the media guidance application stores an identifier ofthe football game which may be from the content source providing thefootball game. The media guidance application may compare (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the characters of the identifier of thefirst media asset with the characters of the extracted first media assetindicator. For example, the media guidance application may compare(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) each character of theextracted indicator, such as “FTBL1485,” with the stored identifier. Themedia guidance application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry504 (FIG. 5)) that the extracted indicator matches the stored identifierif a threshold number or percentage of characters match.

Process 700 continues to 712, where the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) whether theextracted media asset indicator corresponds to the identifier of thefirst media asset. For example, the media guidance application mayexecute (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a program scriptwhich outputs whether the extracted indicator matches the storedidentifier of the first media asset (e.g., “FTBL1485” is both theextracted indicator and the stored identifier). The media guidanceapplication may receive (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) as anoutput of the executed program script a Boolean result based on whetherthe extracted indicator matches the stored identifier.

If the media guidance application determines the extracted media assetindicator corresponds to the identifier of the first media asset,process 700 continues to 714, where the media guidance applicationstores (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the first media assetfrom the first content source indicated in the first field of the storedentry. For example, upon determining that the extracted identifiermatches the stored identifier corresponding to the first media asset,the media guidance application may store (e.g., in storage 508 (FIG. 5))the football game received from the originally-scheduled content source(e.g., ESPN), as indicated in the first field of the stored entry. Themedia guidance application may continue to monitor (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) data packets received from the first contentsource throughout the scheduled time interval to determine whether thefirst media asset is no longer being transmitted from the first contentsource and is being transmitted from a different content source (e.g.,process 700 may return to step 706).

If the media guidance application determines the extracted media assetindicator does not correspond to the identifier of the first mediaasset, process 700 continues to 716, where the media guidanceapplication searches (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) datapackets received on the plurality of content sources for a second datapacket that includes a second media asset indicator that corresponds tothe identifier of the first media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))that the football game scheduled to air at 4 pm on ESPN is not currentlyairing based on the extracted indicator from the media asset currentlyreceived from ESPN not matching the identifier of the football game(e.g., based on comparison with the database as described above). Inresponse to this determination, the media guidance application may scanthrough other content sources (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))to which the user subscribes in an attempt to find a content sourcewhere the media asset is available by extracting indicators from datapackets and comparing the extracted indicators to the identifier of themedia asset, as described above.

Process 700 continues to 718, where the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) whether the seconddata packet received from a second content source of the plurality ofcontent sources includes the second media asset indicator thatcorresponds to the identifier of the first media asset. For example, themedia guidance application may extract (e.g., via control circuitry 504(FIG. 5)) a media asset indicator (e.g., “FTBL1485”) from a data packetreceived from the second content source and determine whether it matches(e.g., via character matching) the identifier of the first media assetstored in a data structure, as described above.

If the media guidance application determines the second data packetreceived from a second content source of the plurality of contentsources includes the second media asset indicator that corresponds tothe identifier of the first media asset, process 700 continues to 724,where the media guidance application updates (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the current content source in the first field ofthe stored entry to indicate that the first media asset is beingtransmitted from the second content source. For example, upondetermining from the extracted data packets from the content source“ESPN2” that the football game is airing on ESPN2 instead of ESPN, themedia guidance application may update (e.g., via control circuitry 504(FIG. 5)) the field corresponding to the current content source in theentry stored in the data structure to reflect that the football game isairing from the different content source, ESPN2. As a specific example,the media guidance application may execute (e.g., via control circuitry504 (FIG. 5)) a program script to update the value stored in the firstfield a content source field associated with the stored entry for thefootball game.

Process 700 then continues to 726 where the media guidance applicationstores (e.g., in storage 508 (FIG. 5)) the first media asset receivedfrom the second content source indicated in the first field of thestored entry as the current content source. For example, the mediaguidance application may store (e.g., in storage 508 (FIG. 5)) thefootball game from ESPN2 instead of ESPN based on the updated currentcontent source value stored in the first field of the entry in thedatabase. In some embodiments, the media guidance application maycontinue to monitor (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the datapackets of the media asset currently being received from the secondcontent source to determine whether the first media asset has beenscheduled back to the first content source, or another content source.For example, the reason the football game was rescheduled to ESPN2 maybe because a sporting event on ESPN scheduled to end at 4 pm ran long.In this situation, while storing (e.g., in storage 508 (FIG. 5)) thefirst media asset from the second content source (e.g., the footballgame from ESPN2) the media guidance application may continue to monitor(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) whether the football game isstill being received from ESPN2. After ten minutes, the game on ESPN mayfinish and the “Michigan v. USC” football game may be scheduled back toESPN from ESPN2. By continuing to monitor the media asset indicatorreceived with the audiovisual data of the media asset during thescheduled time interval, the media guidance application can detect(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a content source change atany time and find and store the media asset from the content source onwhich it is currently available.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may store (e.g., instorage 508 (FIG. 5)) the media asset in multiple segments fromdifferent content sources. For example, the football game may begin onESPN2, but be moved to ESPN after five minutes because the program thatran long on ESPN is over. In such a situation, the media guidanceapplication may store (e.g., in storage 508 (FIG. 5)) a first segment ofthe media asset from the second content source, as discussed above. Forexample, the media guidance application may store (e.g., in storage 508(FIG. 5)) the football game received from ESPN2 at the start of thegame, instead of ESPN as originally scheduled. The media guidanceapplication then may store (e.g., in storage 508 (FIG. 5)) a secondsegment of the first media asset received from the first content source.For example, the media guidance application may determine, as discussedabove (e.g., step 718), that the football game has been scheduled backto ESPN and may store (e.g., in storage 508 (FIG. 5)) a second segmentof the football game received from ESPN. The media guidance applicationthen stitches (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)), into a singlestored file, the first segment and the second segment. For example, themedia guidance application combines (e.g., via control circuitry 504(FIG. 5)) the two stored segments of the football game such that asingle stored file for the entire game can be accessed by the user. Themedia guidance application additionally stores (e.g., in storage 508(FIG. 5)), in the single stored file, an indication that the singlestored file was created from the first content source and the secondcontent source. For example, the media guidance application may store(e.g., in storage 508 (FIG. 5)) the indication that the stored file wasmade from multiple content sources so that the user is alerted to thatfact.

In some embodiments, when stitching together two stored segments, themedia guidance application extracts (e.g., via control circuitry 504(FIG. 5)) a first time stamp for the first segment from metadata storedwith the first segment. For example, the media guidance application mayextract (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the firstsegment was stored starting at “19:00:00” (HH:MM:SS). The media guidanceapplication extracts (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a secondtime stamp for the second segment from metadata stored with the secondsegment. For example, the media guidance application may extract (e.g.,via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the second segment was storedstarting at “19:05:00” (HH:MM:SS). The media guidance application thencompares (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the first time stampand the second time stamp to determine which is earlier. For example,the media guidance application may determine (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) based on subtracting the two extracted timestamps which is earlier based on whether the result obtained from thesubtraction is positive or negative. The media guidance application, inresponse to determining the first time stamp is earlier, adds (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the second segment to the end of thefirst segment. For example, the media guidance application stitches(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the beginning of the secondsegment stored from ESPN to the end of the first segment stored fromESPN2 of the football game.

If the media guidance application determines the second data packetreceived from a second content source of the plurality of contentsources does not include the second media asset indicator thatcorresponds to the identifier of the first media asset, process 700continues to 720, where the media guidance application determines (e.g.,via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) whether there are any additionalcontent sources that have not been searched. For example, the mediaguidance application may execute (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.5)) a program script containing a “for” loop that iteratively receivesdata packets containing media asset indicators from content sources thatthe user subscribes to and terminates when data packets containing mediaasset indicators from all the content sources have been checked.Alternatively or additionally, the media guidance application maymaintain a list of content sources (e.g., in storage 508 (FIG. 5)) thatdata packets have been extracted from and determine whether any contentsources subscribed to by the user have not yet been checked.

If the media guidance application determines there are not anyadditional content sources that have not been searched, process 700continues to 722, where the media guidance application returns (e.g.,via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the first media asset is notavailable for recording. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the footballgame is not being transmitted from any content source available to theuser. Alternatively or additionally, upon making the determination thatthe football game is not being transmitted from any content sourceavailable to the user, the media guidance application may transmit(e.g., via communications network 614 (FIG. 6)) a notification to theuser that the football game cannot be stored due to a schedule change.

If the media guidance application determines there are additionalcontent sources that have not been searched, process 700 returns to 716,where the media guidance application searches (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) data packets received on the plurality ofcontent sources that have not been searched for a second data packetthat includes a second media asset indicator that corresponds to theidentifier of the first media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may continue to search (e.g., via control circuitry 504(FIG. 5)) data packets received from different content sources for amedia asset indicator that corresponds to the stored identifier of thefootball game, as described above.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 7 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 7 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. For example, multiple instances ofprocess 700 may be executed for multiple tuners in a set-top box whichare each scheduled to receive different media assets for storage.Furthermore, it should be noted that any of the devices or equipmentdiscussed in relation to FIGS. 5-6 could be used to perform one or moreof the steps in FIG. 7.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for searching data packetsreceived from a plurality of content sources, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. For example, a media guidance applicationimplementing process 800 may be executed by control circuitry 504 (FIG.5). It should be noted that process 800 or any step thereof could beperformed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 5-6.Process 800 starts with 802, where the media guidance application beginsa process for searching the data packets received on the plurality ofcontent sources for the second data packet that includes the secondmedia asset indicator that corresponds to the identifier of the firstmedia asset. For example, the media guidance application may initializethe necessary variables and execute (e.g., via control circuitry 504(FIG. 5)) a program script calling a particular method to executeprocess 800.

Process 800 continues to 804, where the media guidance applicationaccesses (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a databasecontaining information for a plurality of content sources, where theinformation includes indications of subsets of the plurality of contentsources that are similar to each content source of the plurality ofcontent sources. For example, the media guidance application may accessthe database stored locally in memory (e.g., storage 508 (FIG. 5)) orremotely at a media guidance data source (e.g., media guidance datasource 618 (FIG. 6)) accessible via a communications network (e.g.,communications network 614 (FIG. 6)). The database may be designed in aself-referencing manner, where identifiers and information for eachcontent source may be contained non-contiguously in a single table andlinked via pointers to the appropriate fields corresponding to similarcontent sources in the table.

Process 800 continues to 806, where the media guidance applicationretrieves (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) an indication froma field in the database associated with the first content source thatthe second content source is similar to the first content source. Forexample, the media guidance application may execute (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a database query language script, such as an SQLscript, which retrieves, (e.g., via the declarative “Select” statement)an identifier of a second content source from a field associated withthe first content source. The identifier may be any combination ofalphanumeric or other characters that uniquely identify the contentsource. For example, the identifier may be the frequency (e.g., 54 MHz),call sign of an OTA channel (e.g., WXYZ), or the identifier may be thename of the channel (e.g., ESPN).

Process 800 continues to 808, where the media guidance applicationreceives (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the second contentsource. For example, as described above, the media guidance applicationmay receive media asset information data packets (e.g., as shown in FIG.2) from a second content source in order to determine what media assetis currently being transmitted by the second content source.

Process 800 continues to 810, where the media guidance applicationextracts (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) from data packetsreceived from the second content source the second media assetindicator. As described above in FIGS. 1 and 6, the media guidanceapplication may extract (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) asecond media asset indicator from data packets received from the secondcontent source to determine what media asset is currently beingtransmitted from the second content source. For example, the mediaguidance application may extract (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.5)) the indicator, “Soccer123.”

Process 800 continues to 812, where the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) whether theextracted second media asset indicator corresponds to the identifier ofthe first media asset. As described above in FIGS. 1 and 7, the mediaguidance application compares (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))the extracted indicator (e.g., “Soccer123”) with an identifier of thefirst media asset that the user requested to store. For example, themedia guidance application may compare (e.g., via control circuitry 504(FIG. 5)) characters of the extracted indicator “Soccer123” withcharacters of the stored identifier “Football678” and determine whethera threshold number of characters match.

If the extracted second media asset indicator does not correspond to theidentifier of the first media asset, process 800 continues to 814, wherethe media guidance application returns (e.g., via control circuitry 504(FIG. 5)) that the first media asset is not available from the secondcontent source. For example, if the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a threshold numberof characters do not match between the second media asset indicator andthe identifier of the first media asset, the media guidance applicationmay return that the media asset is not available from the second contentsource.

The media guidance application may return to step 804 and determine(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) whether all content sourceshave been checked to determine whether data packets received from thosecontent sources indicate that the first media asset is currently beingtransmitted. The media guidance application may execute a program scriptto loop (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) through process 800until each content source associated with the first content source hasbeen checked, or until all content sources available to the user havebeen checked.

If the extracted second media asset indicator corresponds to theidentifier of the first media asset, process 800 continues to 816, wherethe media guidance application returns (e.g., via control circuitry 504(FIG. 5)) that the first media asset is available from the secondcontent source. For example, if the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a threshold numberof characters match between the second media asset indicator and theidentifier of the first media asset, the media guidance application mayreturn that the media asset not available from the second contentsource. The media guidance application may then terminate (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) process 800 and execute a new process torecord the first media asset from the second content source.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 8 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 8 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. For example, multiple instances ofprocess 800 may be executed such that multiple tuners in a set-top boxeach receive different content sources in parallel. This allows themedia guidance application to check multiple content sources associatedwith the first content source in parallel to determine whether the firstmedia asset is being transmitted from those content sources.Furthermore, it should be noted that any of the devices or equipmentdiscussed in relation to FIGS. 5-6 could be used to perform one or moreof the steps in FIG. 8.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for determining whether astored media asset is a complete version of the media asset, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. For example, a mediaguidance application implementing process 900 may be executed by controlcircuitry 504 (FIG. 5). It should be noted that process 900 or any stepthereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of the devices shownin FIGS. 5-6. Process 900 starts with 902, where the media guidanceapplication begins a process for determining whether the stored firstmedia asset is complete. For example, the media guidance application mayinitialize the necessary variables and execute (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a program script calling a particular method toexecute process 900.

Process 900 continues to 904, where the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a duration of thestored first media asset. For example, the media guidance applicationmay retrieve (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) metadata stored(e.g., in storage 508 (FIG. 5)) with the stored first media asset thevalue stored in a “program_length” variable, which may be “7100seconds.” Alternatively or additionally, the media guidance applicationmay retrieve (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the start timewhen the first media asset first was stored and the end time when itceased being stored by the media guidance application and calculate theduration via subtracting the two values.

Process 900 continues to 906, where the media guidance applicationcompares (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the duration of thestored first media asset to the scheduled time interval. For example,the media guidance application may subtract (e.g., via control circuitry504 (FIG. 5)) the duration of the stored first media asset from thelength of the scheduled time interval. As a specific example, if theduration of the stored first media asset is 7100 seconds and the lengthof the scheduled time interval is 7200 seconds, the media guidanceapplication may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))that the stored first media asset is 100 seconds shorter than thescheduled time interval, which may indicate a portion of the first mediaasset was not stored.

Process 900 continues to 908, where the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) whether theduration of the stored media asset is shorter than the scheduled timeinterval. For example, as described above, the media guidanceapplication may calculate (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) apositive value as a result of the subtraction of the duration of thestored first media asset from the length of the scheduled time intervalif the stored first media asset is short. Conversely, if the value isnegative, the stored first media asset is longer than the scheduled timeinterval, likely indicating that the first media asset was correctlystored in its entirety. In some embodiments, an actual duration of thefirst media asset may be received (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.5)) by the media guidance application from the first (and/or second)content source which can be used to make a more accurate comparison anddetermination, as described above.

If the media guidance application determines that the duration of thestored media asset is not shorter than the scheduled time interval,process 900 continues to 910, where the media guidance applicationreturns (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the stored firstmedia asset is complete. For example, if the value calculated by themedia guidance application is negative as described above, the mediaguidance application may return (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.5)) that the stored first media asset is complete and terminate process900.

If the media guidance application determines that the duration of thestored media asset is shorter than the scheduled time interval, process900 continues to 912, where the media guidance application compares(e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the difference between theduration of the stored media asset and the scheduled time interval to athreshold difference. For example, the media guidance application mayretrieve (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) a value stored in auser profile corresponding to the threshold difference. The thresholddifference may be adjustable by the user, such that the user determineswhat fraction of a media asset is acceptable to be missing from a storedmedia asset before determining that the stored media asset is missingessential amounts of content (e.g., it is not complete). As a specificexample, the media guidance application may retrieve (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) the threshold difference “60 seconds.” The mediaguidance application may then compare (e.g., via control circuitry 504(FIG. 5)) the threshold difference (e.g., 60 seconds) to the differencedetermined above in step 906 (e.g., 100 seconds).

Process 900 continues to 914, where the media guidance applicationdetermines (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) whether thedifference between the duration of the stored first media asset and thescheduled time interval meets the threshold difference. For example, themedia guidance application may subtract (e.g., via control circuitry 504(FIG. 5)) the threshold difference from the difference determined instep 906 to determine whether the value is positive or negative. If themedia guidance application calculates a negative value, then the mediaguidance application may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504(FIG. 5)) that threshold difference is not met. If the media guidanceapplication calculates a positive or zero value, then the media guidanceapplication may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))that the threshold difference is met.

If the media guidance application determines that the difference betweenthe duration of the stored first media asset and the scheduled timeinterval does not meet the threshold difference, process 900 continuesto 910, where the media guidance application returns (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the stored first media asset is complete.For example, if the value calculated by the media guidance applicationdoes not meet the threshold difference as described above, the mediaguidance application may return (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.5)) that the stored first media asset is complete and terminate process900.

If the media guidance application determines that the difference betweenthe duration of the stored first media asset and the scheduled timeinterval meets the threshold difference, process 900 continues to 910,where the media guidance application returns (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the stored first media asset is notcomplete. For example, if the value calculated by the media guidanceapplication meets the threshold difference as described above, the mediaguidance application may return (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.5)) that the stored first media asset is not complete and may terminateprocess 900.

In some embodiments, in response to determining the difference betweenthe duration of the stored media asset and the scheduled time intervalmeets the threshold difference, the media guidance applicationadditionally determines (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)), frommedia asset listings retrieved from a media guidance database (e.g.,from media guidance data source 618 (FIG. 6)), whether the first mediaasset is available at a future time. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))that a portion of the football game (e.g., one hour) may not have beenstored which exceeds the threshold (e.g., five minutes), and thenretrieve listings from a media guidance data source to determine whethera media asset is available at a future time (e.g., a re-run). The mediaguidance application may compare (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.5)) the characters of the identifier of the media asset with individuallistings to make the determination that the media asset is available ata future time. The media guidance application, in response todetermining the first media asset is available at a future time from athird content source, stores a second request (e.g., via controlcircuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) to store the first media asset from the thirdcontent source (e.g., in a data structure such as a table, as discussedabove in FIG. 7). For example, the media guidance application maydetermine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) that the mediaasset is available from a third content source, which may be the first,second, or a different content source, and schedule a request to storethe media asset from the third content source (e.g., ABC). By schedulingthe re-run of the media asset, the media guidance application may beable to determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5)) whether theoriginal stored media asset was complete (e.g., it ended earlier thanits scheduled interval) or whether it was missing a portion of the mediaasset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application stores only aportion of the media asset scheduled at a future time. The mediaguidance application retrieves (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG.5)), from metadata stored for each frame of a plurality of frames of thestored media asset, times associated with each frame of the plurality offrames. For example, each frame received and stored by the mediaguidance application may have associated metadata with a time the framewas transmitted from the content source (e.g., in the formatHH:MM:SS:FF, where FF is the frame number). The media guidanceapplication may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))that a portion of the first media asset is missing between a first frameand a second frame. For example, the media guidance application maydetect that after a frame with an associated time 19:05:00:01, the nextframe has an associated time 19:10:00:01, and the media guidanceapplication may determine (e.g., via control circuitry 504 (FIG. 5))that a portion (e.g., five minutes of the media asset) is missing fromthe stored media asset. The media guidance application may then store(e.g., in storage 508 (FIG. 5)), with the second request, an instructionto only store the first portion of the first media asset. For example,in order to create a complete version of the media asset without storingthe whole media asset over again, which may be storage intensive, themedia guidance application stores an instruction to only store theframes of the media asset that are missing from the stored first mediaasset (e.g., the first portion).

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 9 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 9 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. For example, multiple instances ofprocess 900 may be executed such that multiple stored media assets arechecked for completeness in parallel. Furthermore, it should be notedthat any of the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 5-6could be used to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 9.

The above-described embodiments of the present disclosure are presentedfor purposes of illustration and not of limitation, and the presentdisclosure is limited only by the claims that follow. Furthermore, itshould be noted that the features and limitations described in any oneembodiment may be applied to any other embodiment herein, and flowchartsor examples relating to one embodiment may be combined with any otherembodiment in a suitable manner, done in different orders, or done inparallel. In addition, the systems and methods described herein may beperformed in real time. It should also be noted that the systems and/ormethods described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with,other systems and/or methods.

1. (canceled)
 2. A method for determining that a media asset scheduledto be stored from one content source has been rescheduled fortransmission from another content source, the method comprising:receiving a user request to store a first media asset from a firstcontent source of a plurality of content sources during a scheduled timeinterval; storing the user request to store the first media asset fromthe first content source during the scheduled time interval as an entryin a data structure, wherein the entry includes a first field indicatinga current content source; during the scheduled time interval: monitoringdata packets received together with video from the first content source;extracting a first media asset indicator from the monitored datapackets; and comparing the extracted first media asset indicator to anidentifier of the first media asset; in response to determining that theextracted media asset indicator does not correspond to the identifier ofthe first media asset, searching data packets received on the pluralityof content sources for a second data packet that includes a second mediaasset indicator that corresponds to the identifier of the first mediaasset; in response to determining that the second data packet receivedfrom a second content source of the plurality of content sourcesincludes the second media asset indicator that corresponds to theidentifier of the first media asset, updating the current content sourcein the first field of the stored entry to indicate that the first mediaasset is being transmitted from the second content source; and storingthe first media asset from the current content source indicated in thefirst field of the stored entry.
 3. The method of claim 2, furthercomprising: during a first time interval outside of the scheduled timeinterval: monitoring the data packets received together with the videofrom the first content source; extracting the first media assetindicator from the monitored data packets; and comparing the extractedfirst media asset indicator to the identifier of the first media asset;in response to determining the extracted first media asset indicatorcorresponds to the identifier of the first media asset, storing thefirst media asset from the first content source indicated in the firstfield of the stored entry.
 4. The method of claim 2, wherein searchingthe data packets received on the plurality of content sources for thesecond data packet that includes the second media asset indicator thatcorresponds to the identifier of the first media asset comprises:accessing a database containing information for a plurality of contentsources, wherein the information includes indications of subsets of theplurality of content sources that are similar to each content source ofthe plurality of content sources; retrieving an indication from a fieldin the database associated with the first content source that the secondcontent source is similar to the first content source; and searchingdata packets from the second content source for the second media assetindicator that corresponds to the identifier of the first media asset.5. The method of claim 2, wherein extracting the first media assetindicator from the monitored data packets comprises: receiving a tablecontaining information related to the video from the first contentsource; and retrieving a value from a field in the table correspondingto the first media asset indicator.
 6. The method of claim 2, whereincomparing the extracted first media asset indicator to the identifier ofthe first media asset comprises: storing, with the user request, theidentifier of the first media asset; and comparing the characters of theidentifier of the first media asset with the characters of the extractedfirst media asset indicator.
 7. The method of claim 2, wherein thestored first media asset is a first segment of the first media assetfrom the second content source, further comprising: storing a secondsegment of the first media asset received from the first content source;stitching, into a single stored file, the first segment and the secondsegment; and storing, in the single stored file, an indication that thesingle stored file was created from the first content source and thesecond content source.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein stitching, intothe single stored file, the first segment and the second segmentcomprises: extracting a first time stamp for the first segment frommetadata stored with the first segment; extracting a second time stampfor the second segment from metadata stored with the second segment;comparing the first time stamp and the second time stamp to determinewhich is earlier; and in response to determining the first time stamp isearlier, adding the second segment to the end of the first segment. 9.The method of claim 2, further comprising: comparing a duration of thestored first media asset to the scheduled time interval; in response todetermining the duration of the stored first media asset is shorter thanthe scheduled time interval: comparing the difference between theduration of the stored first media asset and the scheduled time intervalto a threshold difference; and in response to determining the differencebetween the duration of the stored first media asset and the scheduledtime interval meets the threshold difference, determining that thestored first media asset is not complete.
 10. The method of claim 9,further comprising: in response to determining the difference betweenthe duration of the stored media asset and the scheduled time intervalmeets the threshold difference: determining, from media asset listingsretrieved from a media guidance database, whether the first media assetis available at a future time; and in response to determining the firstmedia asset is available at a future time from a third content source,storing a second request to store the first media asset from the thirdcontent source.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein storing the secondrequest to store the first media asset from the third content sourcecomprises: retrieving, from metadata stored for each frame of aplurality of frames of the stored media asset, times associated witheach frame of the plurality of frames; determining that a portion of thefirst media asset is missing between a first frame and a second frame;and storing, with the second request, an instruction to only store thefirst portion of the first media asset.
 12. A system for determiningthat a media asset scheduled to be stored from one content source hasbeen rescheduled for transmission from another content source, thesystem comprising: storage circuitry; control circuitry configured to:receive a user request to store a first media asset from a first contentsource of a plurality of content sources during a scheduled timeinterval; store the user request to store the first media asset from thefirst content source during the scheduled time interval as an entry in adata structure, wherein the entry includes a first field indicating acurrent content source; during the scheduled time interval: monitor datapackets received together with video from the first content source;extract a first media asset indicator from the monitored data packets;and compare the extracted first media asset indicator to an identifierof the first media asset; in response to determining that the extractedmedia asset indicator does not correspond to the identifier of the firstmedia asset, search data packets received on the plurality of contentsources for a second data packet that includes a second media assetindicator that corresponds to the identifier of the first media asset;in response to determining that the second data packet received from asecond content source of the plurality of content sources includes thesecond media asset indicator that corresponds to the identifier of thefirst media asset, update the current content source in the first fieldof the stored entry to indicate that the first media asset is beingtransmitted from the second content source; and store the first mediaasset from the current content source indicated in the first field ofthe stored entry.
 13. The system of claim 12, wherein the controlcircuitry is further configured to: during a first time interval outsideof the scheduled time interval: monitor the data packets receivedtogether with the video from the first content source; extract the firstmedia asset indicator from the monitored data packets; and compare theextracted first media asset indicator to the identifier of the firstmedia asset; in response to determining the extracted first media assetindicator corresponds to the identifier of the first media asset, storethe first media asset from the first content source indicated in thefirst field of the stored entry.
 14. The system of claim 12, wherein thecontrol circuitry configured to search the data packets received on theplurality of content sources for the second data packet that includesthe second media asset indicator that corresponds to the identifier ofthe first media asset is further configured to: access a databasecontaining information for a plurality of content sources, wherein theinformation includes indications of subsets of the plurality of contentsources that are similar to each content source of the plurality ofcontent sources; retrieve an indication from a field in the databaseassociated with the first content source that the second content sourceis similar to the first content source; and search data packets from thesecond content source for the second media asset indicator thatcorresponds to the identifier of the first media asset.
 15. The systemof claim 12, wherein the control circuitry configured to extract thefirst media asset indicator from the monitored data packets is furtherconfigured to: receive a table containing information related to thevideo from the first content source; and retrieve a value from a fieldin the table corresponding to the first media asset indicator.
 16. Thesystem of claim 12, wherein the control circuitry configured to comparethe extracted first media asset indicator to the identifier of the firstmedia asset is further configured to: store, with the user request, theidentifier of the first media asset; and compare the characters of theidentifier of the first media asset with the characters of the extractedfirst media asset indicator.
 17. The system of claim 12, wherein thestored first media asset is a first segment of the first media assetfrom the second content source, and wherein the control circuitry isfurther configured to: store a second segment of the first media assetreceived from the first content source; stitch, into a single storedfile, the first segment and the second segment; and store, in the singlestored file, an indication that the single stored file was created fromthe first content source and the second content source.
 18. The systemof claim 17, wherein the control circuitry configured to stitch, intothe single stored file, the first segment and the second segment isfurther configured to: extract a first time stamp for the first segmentfrom metadata stored with the first segment; extract a second time stampfor the second segment from metadata stored with the second segment;compare the first time stamp and the second time stamp to determinewhich is earlier; and in response to determining the first time stamp isearlier, add the second segment to the end of the first segment.
 19. Thesystem of claim 12, wherein the control circuitry is further configuredto: compare a duration of the stored first media asset to the scheduledtime interval; in response to determining the duration of the storedfirst media asset is shorter than the scheduled time interval: comparethe difference between the duration of the stored first media asset andthe scheduled time interval to a threshold difference; and in responseto determining the difference between the duration of the stored firstmedia asset and the scheduled time interval meets the thresholddifference, determine that the stored first media asset is not complete.20. The system of claim 19, wherein the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to: in response to determining the difference between theduration of the stored media asset and the scheduled time interval meetsthe threshold difference: determine, from media asset listings retrievedfrom a media guidance database, whether the first media asset isavailable at a future time; and in response to determining the firstmedia asset is available at a future time from a third content source,store a second request to store the first media asset from the thirdcontent source.
 21. The system of claim 20, wherein the controlcircuitry configured to store the second request to store the firstmedia asset from the third content source is further configured to:retrieve, from metadata stored for each frame of a plurality of framesof the stored media asset, times associated with each frame of theplurality of frames; determine that a portion of the first media assetis missing between a first frame and a second frame; and store, with thesecond request, an instruction to only store the first portion of thefirst media asset. 22-51. (canceled)